Breaking: ESPN Might Have Been Unethical

There’s a story out there now about how the talking heads at ESPN’s “College Gameday” (the real one, not the basketball one) have been taking money from shoe manufacturers for…well, nobody really knows what for. Not even the people at ESPN.

After an inquiry to ESPN about the announcers’ Nike contracts, Josh Krulewitz, an ESPN spokesman, said that Fowler, the host of “GameDay,” is “ending his minor association” with Nike “to avoid any potential perception issues.” Fowler was not made available for an interview.

Corso, Fowler and Herbstreit’s deals with Nike were never announced or disclosed to viewers. “We were unaware of these deals,” Krulewitz said.

Whatever. I’m done expecting ESPN to be objective about anything. Herbstreit will always talk up the Big Ten before they get crushed in their bowl game. Corso will tell the world how hard Derek Dooley worked in the offseason, and Fowler will continue to feign shock whenever a quarterback is caught receiving money from a booster. Fine.

They’re more MTV and CNN now, but this is an age where CNN is more MTV than CNN, so it’s hard to be too critical, and if they want to pimp Nike or Reebok or K-Swiss while all of the people they’re covering are pimping Nike or Reebok or K-Swiss, good on ’em. Whatever keeps Erin Andrews in stretchy pants.

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I don’t know what Game Day show you watch, Punte, but Herbie craps all over the Big Ten and his/your/my/our alma mater routinely. Just look what he did with his final AP Poll vote — he dropped the Buckeyes 3 spots (to #9) after beating Arkansas, who also feel 3 spots on his ballot.